Highway 14 from Cedar over to 89 is just the same. The beatle infestation was
horrible and they just let all the dead trees stand there because they
wouldn't let anyone clear them. Something changed in the last year or two,
but I kept thinking that if they had a forest fire the whole mountain would be
gone. And it still would be if there is a fire there.These environmentals,
who sit in washington, and make the rules have very little idea about the
dangers in the west with the forest fires. I'm sorry for all those
whose lives have been affected by irrational policies.

The first priority is to make sure the beetle infestation does not spread from
the infested area and no one has said if the infestation has been contained and
stopped. It seems sensible that if the loggers are allowed to cut and drag the
infested trees through uninfected forest it would infects any remaining healthy
trees.

The real question is why hasn't the forest service done
anything with the beetle problem so they can cut down these trees? Or can the
beetles be destroyed and managed so they don't spread?

This
article is telling a biased one side of the story and why hasn't this
logging company volunteered any information about the beetle infestation. They
kill trees but still live in them. If the DN had journalist instead of fiction
writers working for them they might do a better job of truthful full story
information to the public.

It's hard to believe that only the
logger is the only who has a complaint when our state forester isn't even
there. The BLM is responsible for all the land and forests in Utah and the
logger only cares about himself.

@AMPatriot: The problem is that these are overgrown spruce forests. The
biological rule of thumb is that a spruce forest lasts about 60 to 80 years
naturally. Then either fire or disease will kill or dramatically reduce the
stand. The beetle exists naturally with the trees. When a spruce stand is
healthy and has enough water the sap will act defensively and push the beetle
out of the tree and you don't have that much mortality of trees. When the
stand becomes too dense and the trees compete for water and other resource then
they stress. Without water they can't produce enough sap for their natural
defense mechanism (drought aggravates this too) and the beetle thrives. The
solution is to thin the trees (aka. logging) to reduce the stress. The result is
a longer lasting, healthier forest with less fuel for fire and a more stable
wildlife environment (especially for grouse). But enviro-wacks like the UEC and
SUWA want things to be "natural" and natures way is to manage by
catastrophe. She doesn't care about what wildlife lives there or if they
are endangered. Mother Nature is not a nice lady.

justamacguy. Thank you for your insightful comments. There is nothing uglier
than a forest of dead trees. Forest fires are natures way of cleaning out the
dead to make room for new and healthy trees. The forest service needs to work
the timber industry, not against them.

Still doesn't make sense if all the subterranean water has disappeared as
in much of Utah then we might as well cut down all trees instead of figure out
where the aquifers water went. Deforestation is not always the right answer,
they need to restore water to the trees.

How much is oil/gas well
fracturing of bed rock affecting the trees and forests dieing of thirst?
Fracturing (bombs), creating underground earth quake in oil wells destroy
aquifers river, a documented fact. Everyone deny's destruction to bed rock
and aquifers but if it breaks oil loose it must crack river beds with these mini
earthquakes as well.

People think fracturing done by oil companies is
environmentally clean. Just because we can't see the damage does not mean
its environmentally friendly. Oil companies have to drill into the aquifers
miles from oil to get millions of barrels of water and pump it into the oil
wells to make oil float on top.

So how safe are all our forests if
the oil companies are draining/contaminating aquifers feeding tree roots and
cities? Beetles are a product of carnage done to mother nature with dead land
and forests.

From what I have learned from the state hydrologist, it is the gradual change
from aspen to conifer forests that result in the depletion of groundwater, since
the conifer keeps more snow from reaching the ground. Thinning the old trees
leaves the younger ones which are better equipped to fight the beetles. Just
like how older humans have a harder time fighting illness. Lets thin it out and
profit from it in many ways, rather than letting this resource go up in smoke.